Concerns relating to national and economic security have created a desire within the United States to find a replacement for energy resources imported from foreign countries. Among the many so-called “alternative fuels” that have been proposed as a replacement for imported oil are methanol, ethanol and biodiesel. Crops such as corn are routinely converted into ethanol, and soybeans, rapeseed, and other vegetable oils into bio-diesel fuel. The production of bio-diesel from animal and vegetable oils is also commonly performed, using a chemical conversion by reacting the oils with methanol. These market forces have greatly increased the demand for alternate sources of methanol, preferably from renewable and domestic sources. One drawback associated with these methods is the costs associated with producing the agricultural feedstocks.
Simultaneously with these efforts, the desire to provide a safe and reliable waste disposal method has led to the development of systems that generate usable energy or chemical products from hazardous and municipal solid wastes. These systems are also being developed to use waste agricultural biomass materials such as corn stover, forest harvesting residues, forest timber, and crops grown specifically for the biomass content such as switch grass. For example, Integrated Environmental Technologies LLC, the assignee of the present invention, markets systems that convert organic waste materials into a hydrogen rich synthesis gas.
These systems are described in the following US patents and pending US patent applications, the entire contents of which are herein incorporated into this disclosure in their entirety by this reference:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,666,891 Arc Plasma-Melter Electro Conversion System for Waste Treatment and Resource Recovery—Issued Sep. 16, 1997, U.S. Pat. No. 5,756,957 Tunable Molten Oxide Pool Assisted Plasma Melter Vitrification System—Issued May 26, 1998, U.S. Pat. No. 5,785,923 Apparatus for Continuous Feed Material Melting—Issued Jul. 28, 1998, U.S. Pat. No. 5,798,497 Tunable, Self-Powered Integrated Arc Plasma-Melter Vitrification System for Waste Treatment and Resource Recovery—Issued Aug. 25, 1998, U.S. Pat. No. 5,811,752 Enhanced Tunable Plasma-Melter Vitrification Systems—Issued Sep. 22, 1998, U.S. Pat. No. 5,847,353 Methods and Apparatus for Low NOx Emissions during the Production of Electricity from Waste Treatment Systems—Issued Dec. 8, 1998, U.S. Pat. No. 5,908,564 Tunable, Self-powered Arc Plasma-melter Electro Conversion System for Waste Treatment and Resource Recovery—Issued Jun. 1, 1999, U.S. Pat. No. 6,018,471 Methods and Apparatus for Treating Waste—Issued Jan. 25, 2000, U.S. Pat. No. 6,037,560 Enhanced Tunable Plasma-Melter Vitrification Systems—Issued Mar. 14, 2000, U.S. Pat. No. 6,215,678 Arc Plasma Joule Heated Melter System for Waste Treatment and Resource Recovery—Issued Apr. 10, 2001, U.S. Pat. No. 6,127,645 Tunable, Self-powered Arc Plasma-melter Electro Conversion System for Waste Treatment and Resource Recovery—Issued Oct. 3, 2000, U.S. Pat. No. 6,160,238 Tunable Molten Oxide Pool Assisted Plasma Melter Vitrification System—Issued Dec. 12, 2000, U.S. Pat. No. 6,066,825 Methods and Apparatus for Low NOx Emissions during the Production of Electricity from Waste Treatment Systems—Issued May 23, 2000, U.S. Pat. No. 6,576,210 Method for Complete Destruction of Carbon in High Temperature Plasma Waste Treatment Systems—Issued Jun. 10, 2003, U.S. Pat. No. 6,630,113 Methods and Apparatus for Treating Waste—Issued Oct. 7, 2003, U.S. Pat. No. 6,018,542 Sealed Electrode Feeding Assembly—Issued Jan. 25, 2000, U.S. Pat. No. 6,049,560 Inductively Heated Side Drain for High Temperature Molten Materials—Issued Oct. 11, 2000, U.S. Pat. No. 6,371,711 Valveless Continuous Atmospherically Isolated Container Feeding Assembly—Issued Apr. 16, 2002, U.S. Pat. No. 6,737,604 Symbiotic Solid Waste Gaseous Waste Conversion System for High Efficiency Electricity Production—Issued May 18, 2004, U.S. Pat. No. 6,570,906 Arc Furnace with DC Arc and AC Joule Heating—Issued May 27, 2003, U.S. Pat. No. 6,805,107 Dual Fuel Source Carburetor Method—Issued Oct. 19, 2004, Ser. No. 11/177,152 Method For Enhancing The Operation Of Electrical Power Plants and Energy Storage—Filed Jul. 6, 2005.
These waste treatment systems have proven to be effective in converting waste and biomass products to useful energy in the form of synthesis gas, and the synthesis gas produced by these and similar waste treatment systems can be converted into liquid fuels using known techniques involving catalytic reactors that operate at high pressure and elevated temperature. However, there exists a need to improve the gas to liquids conversion process, and specifically to improve the conversion efficiency, the yield per ton of syngas, and the specificity of the intended product or combinations thereof.
Among the commercial methods and apparatus that are relevant to this disclosure are sonic mixing systems. Sonic mixing systems are commercially available. One such system manufactured by Resodyn Corporation of Butte, Mont., is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,188,993, which describes an apparatus and method for resonant-vibratory mixing that describes a three-mass system having a structure that is capable of achieving low-frequencies of 10 to 1000 Hertz (Hz), high accelerations of 2 to 75 accelerations equal to that caused by gravity (g's) and large displacement amplitudes of 0.01 to 0.5 inches.
Other systems are described in the following US Patents, the entire contents of which are herein incorporated into this disclosure in their entirety by this reference. U.S. Pat. No. 2,091,414 discloses an apparatus for effecting vibration. U.S. Pat. No. 3,162,910 discloses an apparatus for shaking out foundry flasks. U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,353,492 and 2,636,719 disclose devices that provide for the vibrational compaction of dry materials and for the feeding of material via a vibratory conveyance. U.S. Pat. No. 6,213,630 claims electronic control of motors for the purpose of vibrational control of a compaction device. U.S. Pat. No. 3,498,384 discloses a vibratory impact device. U.S. Pat. No. 3,583,246 discloses a vibration device driven by at least one imbalance generator. U.S. Pat. No. 3,767,168 discloses a mechanical agitation apparatus. U.S. Pat. No. 4,619,532 discloses a shaker for paint containers. U.S. Pat. No. 4,972,930 discloses a dynamically adjustable rotary unbalance shaker. U.S. Pat. No. 5,979,242 discloses a multi-level vibration test system having controllable vibration attributes. U.S. Pat. No. 6,250,792 discloses an integrated vibratory adapter device. U.S. Pat. No. 6,263,750 discloses a device for generating directed vibrations. U.S. Pat. No. 6,579,002 discloses a broad-range large-load fast-oscillating high-performance reciprocating programmable laboratory shaker.
Thus, there exists a need for new methods and apparatus to convert organic waste streams into methanol, ethanol and other liquid products. There is a further need for new methods and apparatus to convert gasses having hydrogen and carbon dioxide into methanol and other liquid products. The present invention addresses those needs.